About Us

Our Mission

The mission of Dress for Success is to empower women to achieve financial independence by providing a network of support, professional attire, and the development tools to help women thrive in work and life.

Our Vision

Our vision is to not only provide women with appropriate clothing for job interviews, but to also provide a stable, caring, supportive environment where women can embrace the knowledge, agency, and support they need to achieve self-defined success. Our programming is grounded in providing the essential knowledge, tools, skills, and resources required to empower women to get a job, keep a job, advance their careers, and cultivate professional and civic leadership roles.

Our Programming

Our programming is based on a proactive (rather than reactive) career services model that encourages women to make continued investments in their professional development on an ongoing basis as opposed to only when they are on the job market or in crisis. Our career journey is life-long with many of us spending roughly 1/3 of our lives at work. Our organization isn’t just about an outfit. We go beyond the suit by providing the essential knowledge, skill-sets, and support that empowers our clients to succeed. We believe that a successful career journey, one that leads to personal and financial success, begins with proactively investing in ourselves.

Our History & Our Future

Dress for Success Quad Cities has been the first step to a better life for thousands of local women since our founding in 2011 by Regina Haddock. Empowering a woman to gain economic independence also helps her family and our community. Because of that, our programming focuses on the needs of the women in our greater Quad Cities Region (Eastern Iowa & Western Illinois); it is designed to help any woman on her journey to financial independence: unemployed women, underemployed women, women looking to transition back into the workforce or into a new career, women wanting to advance in their careers, and women looking to gain new skills.

Dress for Success Quad Cities has become renowned for providing interview attire to women returning to or entering the workforce. Since our inception, our mission has expanded to include a variety of workforce and career development programs. In 2020, we launched Virtual Programming & Services. We are an ever-expanding “Success Squad” comprised of staff, volunteers, members, and businesses around the Quad Cities who work together to make a big impact in women’s lives. By supporting each other, we can reach a greater number of women and make our vision a reality.

Learn more about how you can get involved by signing up for our newsletter.

From a basement to around the globe

In 1996, Nancy Lublin, a second-year law student, received a $5,000 inheritance from her great-grandfather and decided to turn this gift into one that would keep on giving. She teamed up with three nuns in her area and, identifying a crucial need that was not being filled, founded Dress for Success in the basement of a church in Manhattan that same year.

From that original basement boutique, the mission of Dress for Success spread over all of North America and then across the globe, demonstrating that achieving economic independence is a challenge that all women face regardless of their location, language, customs or culture. Today, there are 160 affiliates in 30 countries with 2 million women served.

Translate »